Police Officers in Namwala, Southern Province, have turned the police station into a court-room, the residents in area have told the Watchdog.

Some residents have told the Watchdog that Police only take cases to court if one refuses to bribe them as they always complain of low salaries.

Recently, some police officers on the Copperbelt vowed to continue receiving bribes and working with illegal copper dealers until the government starts giving them good salaries.

But Inspector General of Police, Stella Libongani, in a statement promised to investigate the matter and told people to avoid giving bribes to Police.

Irate officers stormed PF controlled Post newspaper in Ndola and said the government should forget about fighting corruption in the police service if they kept paying police officers meagre salaries.

“Even after coming into power, the PF government who promised us heaven on earth have abandoned us. The PF politicians promised to better our salaries once in power and we massively voted for them. But they have refused to better our conditions of services,” said one of the officers.

“The fight against corruption is meaningless if the government will continue giving us bad salaries. We will continue working with jerabos, because they give us a lot of money. The jerabos are considerate and we will continue working with them. They put bread and butter on our tables.”

The officers said they did not want to engage in corrupt activities but that circumstances forced them to receive bribes. They said corruption in the police service would have been removed if the officers were getting decent salaries.

“Everyone in the police service is connected. We have people we do favours for who give us money. Our salaries are so little that they cannot even buy groceries for our houses. It is not only junior officers who are involved, even senior officers receive bribes. The bribes we get help us in our day-to-day lives,” said one officer proudly.

President Michael Sata and his cabinet increased their salaries by more than hundred per cent just after winning elections